Thanks to the persistence of the folks at Chalkbeat Newark, we have at least partial access to the long-concealed report that details the anti-Black racism at the district’s Newark School for Global Studies, a report paid for by Newark and state taxpayers. According to this analysis done by former Ras Baraka aide Lauren Wells, district and school leaders failed to “quickly and consistently” respond to student and teacher reports that Black students were regularly harassed and bullied and called derogatory terms like “n***er” and “monkey.” Two teachers are suing the district for harassment and racial hostility. 

Here is an excerpt from the leaked draft obtained by Chalkbeat:

“The draft report paints a picture of a campus where Black students and teachers reported being called racial slurs by Latino students, the N-word was commonly used among non-Black students, and where complaints by Black students were often dismissed or minimized by administrators and non-Black staff. A male student was repeatedly called an anti-gay slur in class while a teacher was present, and other students made threats to ‘take off’ and ‘stomp on’ the hijabs of Black and Arab Muslim female teachers, according to the review.”

What is the response of the district and, in particular, Superintendent Roger Leon? 

Leon and his underlings are still refusing to release the report to the public, despite lawsuits pressed by the Newark Teachers Union (which now has private access), NAACP, and various news outlets. When Chalkbeat asked NPS’s Director of Communications Paul Brubaker about whether there has been any progress in Global Studies’ climate, he also was mute:

“Brubaker did not respond to questions about the district’s efforts to fix the problems at the high school, how it changed its policies to address racial problems, and the professional support it has provided teachers with since the incidents at the school surfaced.

Our superintendent is responsible for this mess. He gets paid $308,972 a year from your pocketbook (that’s not counting generous benefits) and he is not talking. Instead, NPS is going into cover-up mode and swirling more money around. How much are we paying for all the legal fees connected with community efforts to unseal the cover-up? We don’t even know that! 

If you don’t believe the students and teachers who have appeared at multiple board meetings to document the racist culture at Global Studies, look at the change in demographics at the school: Every year, the proportion of Black students decreases because our Black children are voting with their feet. Currently only 21% of Black students are enrolled at Global Studies, a drop of 10% over the last two years. (Also, 72% of students there can’t read at grade level and 88% are behind in math. But that’s NPS under Leon for you.) 

What is Roger Leon teaching our students? That those in power can dodge consequences. That cover-ups work. That honesty and transparency is optional. That the democratic process falls to pieces when higher-ups want to hide from accountability. 

Look at one of the recent developments over the conspiracy of silence. When the daughter of Newark School Board member Dawn Hayes sued the district due to the racism she experienced as a student at Global Studies, NPS petitioned the state to have her removed as a board member due to an “irreconcilable conflict of interest. Hayes described the move (denied by the state) as “an attempt at a public lynching of a Black woman.”

Meanwhile our children continue to lose ground, with fewer than four in ten reading at grade-level and more than three-quarters failing math tests. Yet parents, community members, and state taxpayers continue to shell out money not for academic improvement but to pay for Leon’s cover-up. 

Have you had enough yet?